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Adding Stillness to our Everyday

In May this year, we were delighted to host Tom Cronin speak at our Awareness Within, Let the Change Begin event.
Tom has a very powerful and yet subtle message to share with us all….

Sometimes do you just feel like a bit of peace and quiet? Do you crave a little silence and solitude?

We talk a lot.

We probably don’t even realise how much talking we do. From the time that we wake up with our partner, kids, flatmates then onto workmates in the office, friends at lunch, after work drinks, then home to more family chatting. It’s a lot of talking and noise.

I recently was in Bali speaking at a conference called Awesomeness Fest when I came across a top guy named Rodolfo. We had some great chats and he was telling me about how he only recently returned to speaking after taking a year off in silence. Yes, 12 months in total silence! Amazing isn’t it? He exuded a very calm and serene aura, as you’d expect. He said the silence was very empowering and revitalising, as he had conserved all that energy that is usually spent on talking.

It reminded me of Nyepi, a Balinese day of silence held once a year. On this day all of the Balinese retreat into their houses from 6am till 6am the next day. Even the airport closes for the day, which is remarkable. This day is strictly followed and the only people walking the streets are specific officers who make sure the prohibitions are adhered to.

Embracing some silence in our life is a powerful thing. It gives us time to internalise, to check in with ourselves and ask us some questions. It’s easy to get distracted and continually look externally by engaging with the world around us. But with silence, there is no escape. It’s just you and that big spacious void! You can’t hide there.

How do you think you’d go a year of silence, or even a day of silence?

Here’s the good news. To embrace some silence you don’t need to close that mouth of yours for a whole year or even a whole day. Setting aside a little bit of time each day for silence is a simple and powerful thing to do. I set aside moments of silence each morning and evening. Just 20 minutes each session. This time of silence and solitude becomes the foundation for my day. It’s the silence that the noise is built on. Through a very long-term regular daily practice of silence, we are able to experience a duality of silence as well as the noise of your thoughts, words and actions. This duality is called Cosmic Consciousness, whereby the background silence of Being is simultaneously experienced with the foreground noise of thoughts and words.

Cosmic Consciousness is like the surface fluctuations of the ocean blended in with the deep stillness of the ocean being experienced as One. Activity and inactivity together. Impermanent and permanent together. It’s a very liberating state of mind as you are able to rise in the stillness and silence even while you are engaged in the world. Sounds too good to be true I know but it does exist.